Complete coverage of the Angels minor leagues

The Minor League Game of the Week

He’s a relief pitcher now, but in 2003 Warner Madrigal was an outfielder with the Provo Angels.

August 15, 2003 … The Provo Angels host the Missoula Osprey in a Pioneer League contest. Click Here to listen. You need Windows Media Player.

The recording has a few delays at the beginning. That’s due to Internet congestion during the original webcast. It clears up after a minute or two.

Three future major league Angels are in the lineup — Reggie Willits, Howie Kendrick and Matt Brown. Catcher Bobby Wilson, who was at Salt Lake this year and will be the next callup should Jeff Mathis or Mike Napoli falter, is the DH in the game.

A couple other players in this game are of interest.

Warner Madrigal, now a relief pitcher who was with the Cedar Rapids Kernels this year, was a young power hitter prospect back in 2003. He’s in the lineup for Provo, batting cleanup and playing right field. Warner was 5-for-5 in the game with a triple, double and three singles. In 2008, you’ll probably see him in the Rancho Cucamonga bullpen with his high-90s fastball.

The starting pitcher is Abel Moreno, who finished the year at 10-0 with a 2.38 ERA and was named the Pioneer League’s pitcher of the year. He disappeared from the Angels’ system after the 2004 system, unable to get a visa to leave the Dominican Republic. Abel ran into legal problems of a non-criminal nature, ending his career for the time being. But I just did a Google search and found he played this year in the fledgling Israel Baseball League where he was 1-3 with a 5.60 ERA in six starts.

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